On February 1, Chinese Ambassador to Estonia H.E. Mr. Li Chao published a signed Estonian article on the online version of Eesti Päevaleht entitled " Spring Festival Greeting from Chinese Ambassador: Let’s join hands and set off again in the New Year". Ambassador Li introduced the traditional culture of Chinese Spring Festival, appreciated highly of the high-quality people to people exchanges between China and Estonia, reviewed the main achievements which have been made since the founding of the People's Republic of China 70 years ago, especially the reform and opening up 40 years ago, expounded that China-Estonia relations of friendly cooperation have entered a new stage of rapid development and wished everyone a happy new year.

In the tradition, Chinese Lunar New Year, which as we often call “Spring Festival”, will fall on 5 February 2019, is the grandest and most joyful festival for family reunion and celebration. Usually, the "warm-up" will start a few weeks ahead of Spring Festival. The preparation for the Spring Festival usually will start several weeks earlier with many traditional customs, such as "Spring Cleaning"—thoroughly cleaning the house, which means bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new; "pasting paper-cut decorations on the windows" and "putting on the Spring Couplet on both sides of the door", which symbolizes the best wishes of the people for the coming New Year; the Lunar New Year's Eve is the most warm and special moment for the whole family to get reunion, catch up, and have fun over a family feast which comprise lots of ingredients with good meaning of happiness and fortune. With Spring Festival coming, celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year is the eternal theme of Chinese people, no matter where we are. After a busy year, it’s time for us to have a rest, reward our family, friends and ourselves for all the hard work in the past year, encourage and warm each other, setting off with the wish of a better life in the coming year.

There is an old Chinese saying: "Nothing, not even mountains and oceans, can separate people with shared goals and vision". I had the privilege to come to this beautiful country as Chinese Ambassador when Estonia celebrated its centenary a year ago. Although China and Estonia are geographically distant, the simplicity and kindness of the Estonian people, the creativity and openness of the economy, the solidarity and stability of the society, have made me feel close and warm.

In a sense, our two countries are both old and young. China has a long history of more than 5,000 years with a splendid culture. The Kaali crater on the Estonian island of Saaremaa also dates back nearly 4,000 years ago. Beijing, the capital city of China, has world-renowned the largest scale and well preserved wooden structure in the world-the Forbidden City. Tallinn, capital city of Estonia, has the best preserved medieval old town well known in northern Europe. When 220 artists from the Shanghai Opera House participated in the Saaremaa Opera Festival for the first time as a guest and brought down the house, when the experts of cultural relics protection from the Palace Museum and the Kumu Museum of Modern Art interacted with each other with great passion on how to best preserve the cultural heritage, when the number of Chinese tourists to Estonia increases 152% over the past five years, when there are more and more Chinese signs appeared in Tallinn old town, I am convinced that people's desire to understand each other through history and culture is the same. Friendship, which derives from close contact between the people, holds the key to sound state-to-state relations.

Since 70 years of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, especially 40 years of reform and opening up, the Chinese government has not only provided adequate food and clothing for its over 1.4 billion people, lifted over 700 million Chinese out of poverty and become the second largest economy in the world, but also fostered “four new great inventions” such as high-speed rail, mobile payment, shared bicycles, and e-commerce, which thoroughly improves people’s experience of daily life. Since 100 years of the independence of the Republic of Estonia, especially 28 years of regaining independence, Estonia has not only given birth to famous high-tech enterprises such as Skype and Transferwise, become the country with the highest density of start-up enterprises in the world, but also created the X-Road, the most efficient and convenient platform of e-government. The digital economy has entered many fields of social production and life. When SF express and Omniva joined hands to create Post 11, when Didi taxi allied with Taxify, when the Estonia piano, Stigo electric car, Saaremaa wooden house and other unique products from Estonia are increasingly favored by Chinese consumers, when more and more Estonia's healthy and nutritious dairy products and aquatic products are on the dinner menu of Chinese people’s Lunar New Year’s eve, when the Estonian poultry company signed a contract of more than 14 million US dollars with Chinese counterpart on its first participation in the first China International Import Expo held in Shanghai, I am even more convinced that people's desire for a better life is the same. Only opening up and cooperation can result in mutual benefit and win-win situation for both countries.

Over the past year, I am very happy to have made many Estonian friends. They come from all walks of life. Through the hard work and dedication of both sides, we have witnessed together the sound social and economic development of our two countries. Through the extensive consultation, joint construction and shared benefit, we have witnessed together friendly cooperation between China and Estonia entering a new phase of speeding-up development. There is an old Chinese saying “the wise people will seek common interests”. Last September, I was honored to accompany Madame President Ms. Kersti Kaljulaid for her first visit to China. The leaders of the two countries reached important consensus on promoting the synergy of development strategies, pragmatic cooperation and more high-quality people to people exchanges between our two countries. China and Estonia have their own strengths, share a vast common interest, and have a huge potential for cooperation. With the Chinese Lunar New Year coming, let’s join hands and set off again, to speed up our exchanges and cooperation to a new level. Although today’s world is full of uncertainties, nothing is impossible as long as we keep confidence and focus, enhance connectivity and mutual learning.

In a few days, the 10th "Happy Chinese New Year" will be held in Tallinn. "Ten" symbolizes perfection in Chinese. The upcoming year of pig is also just around the corner, pig in Chinese culture represents gentleness, blessed and fortune. After a few weeks, the celebration of Estonia’s centenary will reach its peak. Later this year，we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On the special occasion of Spring Festival, I sincerely wish China and Estonia peace, prosperous and make further progress; wish the friendly cooperation between China and Estonia keeping up with the times and lasting forever! Wish all my dear friends across Estonia a happy Spring Festival, and blessed with good luck and fortune!